Call it pink slip fever?
There were “mass layoffs” at a series of hip music sites — BrooklynVegan, Alternative Press, Revolver and Goldmine — this week, according to a report by Pitchfork, with most of the outlets’ staff let go. But perhaps the most surprising news was that the music publications were all allegedly owned by music behemoth Live Nation and emo rock bros Joel and Benji Madden.
Pitchfork — which has faced its own challenges after being bought by media giant Conde Nast and folded into GQ — reported that the allegedly decimated music sites have been owned by a company called Veeps “since 2024 or 2025.”
Veeps is a ticketed livestreaming service founded by the Maddens. They sold a majority stake in the company in 2021 to Live Nation. (At the time, Michael Rapino, CEO of Live Nation, said of the deal, “We are impressed with what Benji and Joel have created with Veeps and their platform will create new ways to enjoy thousands of Live Nation concerts. Livestreaming is a great complement to our core business, and essentially gives any show an unlimited capacity.”)
Pitchfork reported that the music outlets were all owned by Veeps after Jacob Daneman, a Chicago-based publicist at Pitch Perfect PR, broke the news by posting on X: “RIP Brooklyn Vegan. Absolutely bewildering. Thinking of all the great people there and the unparalleled music coverage they’ve done over the years. Utterly unceremonious and moronic actions by Veeps.”
(Pitch Perfect’s client roster includes cool music acts such as Mac DeMarco, Kurt Vile, Wilco, Spiritualized, Slowdive, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, My Bloody Valentine, Dinosaur Jr., Beach Fossils and many others.)
BrooklynVegan launched in 2004 as a blog covering indie rock in New York and became an exhaustive and indispensable guide for music nerds, while Alternative Press was known for covering the alternative punk and emo scenes (including bands like Good Charlotte). Goldmine harkened back to the ’70s, and Revolver was a hard rock and heavy metal pub.
We reached out to Live Nation for comment. None of the sites have posted any confirmation.
Live Nation’s investor relations site says that its revenue was up 9% to $7.7 billion in the second quarter of 2026, while operating income up 7% to $522 million and it has an operating cash flow of $419 million.
Veeps does not independently report financial results as part of Live Nation.
The Maddens, who are also behind the management firm MDDN, have yet to comment, but have been taking their share of hits on social media.
One commenter posted, “The Ultimate Sellout: Good Charlotte and Live Nation Just Killed the Underground Music Press.” (That prompted a music industry insider to huff to us, “It’s hard to call the Maddens sell outs when they never had anything to sell out in the first place.” Ouch?)
In 2024, Semafor penned a piece called, “How Condé Nast bought and destroyed America’s iconic music publication,” detailing Pitchfork’s “remarkable fall for the most important music publication of its generation.”
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